Some thoughts about the plugin
Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2006 3:04 pm
So I'm working on recreating a 1963 advertising image for the Volvo P1800 Sportscar.
Obviously there is a whole lot of texturing work needed to get this done, where the fancy multilayer materials would help. Only right now I find it so much of a pain to work with I give up waiting for better S/W...
Here is the original:
And here is the WIP:
It's a little strange to me why such an obvious bug as not being able to use MXM's with texturemaps doesn't get fixed or even listed in the PLUGIN BUGS post. Is it a fundamental technical problem that nobody wants to talk about or just a case of nobody is working on the plugin right now??
There is a thousand tweaks that need to be done in a project like this, opening Studio to replace materials every time you press render is just not working. Not to mention if I wanted to animate the car coming up the street...
The fact that MXM materials go pitch black when you assign them in Max is also something that needs adressing. A first step would be to just make the default color gray rather than black. At least then you could see your geometry shapes not just a pitch black blob, that would make life a little easier:
Next step, also very simple, would be to make the color configurable, so I could assign a simple color for each MXM material. That way I could at least tell what parts where assigned what material, and it would be a little easier to thell the materials apart in the Material window!
But ultimatly, unless there is a way to position textures as well it's still going to be a no-go. At least for materials only using one projector channel you I could maybe select one of the texture maps from the MXM as the bitmap that would show in the Max viewport, and position using that.
Creating Max UVW Channels for each projector channel needed in the MXM, and being able to use the Max UVW gizmo to position the maps is the ultimate, of course
...
Well well, just some thoughts... maybe there is someone listening
/j
Obviously there is a whole lot of texturing work needed to get this done, where the fancy multilayer materials would help. Only right now I find it so much of a pain to work with I give up waiting for better S/W...
Here is the original:
And here is the WIP:
It's a little strange to me why such an obvious bug as not being able to use MXM's with texturemaps doesn't get fixed or even listed in the PLUGIN BUGS post. Is it a fundamental technical problem that nobody wants to talk about or just a case of nobody is working on the plugin right now??
There is a thousand tweaks that need to be done in a project like this, opening Studio to replace materials every time you press render is just not working. Not to mention if I wanted to animate the car coming up the street...
The fact that MXM materials go pitch black when you assign them in Max is also something that needs adressing. A first step would be to just make the default color gray rather than black. At least then you could see your geometry shapes not just a pitch black blob, that would make life a little easier:
Next step, also very simple, would be to make the color configurable, so I could assign a simple color for each MXM material. That way I could at least tell what parts where assigned what material, and it would be a little easier to thell the materials apart in the Material window!
But ultimatly, unless there is a way to position textures as well it's still going to be a no-go. At least for materials only using one projector channel you I could maybe select one of the texture maps from the MXM as the bitmap that would show in the Max viewport, and position using that.
Creating Max UVW Channels for each projector channel needed in the MXM, and being able to use the Max UVW gizmo to position the maps is the ultimate, of course
...Well well, just some thoughts... maybe there is someone listening
/j